What No One Else is Talking About

Here’s the thing though… everyone is talking about that. Everyone says it’s on the coaches… it’s on the players… it’s on the families… it’s on the fans… it’s on the “fill in the blank“. While some of those observations may or may not be true, let’s talk about what no one else is talking about…

I noticed three things at the game that a lot of people missed. Maybe they missed it, because their heads were down after the game… but after a 3 1/2 hour ride to Gatlinburg after the game, I couldn’t get these thoughts out of my mind.

Why isn’t anyone talking about the fact that one player (who doesn’t have to be mentioned by name) stormed off the field at the end of the game away from the rest of the team? Yes, a player was so upset that he started to run towards a different tunnel. He was shaking his head and verbally upset. It was such a scene that Rock Oliver, formerUK Men’s Basketball Strength and Conditioning Coach, had to run out, grab him by his chest and encourage him to be with his team. While Oliver was trying to console him, he kept shaking his head and yelling. After about a minute or two, Oliver convinced him to go in with his team and he did, so believe me… the players know how you feel.

Photo: Andrew Bishop, CameronMillsRadio.com, Post-Game walking off of the field.

We’ve heard about Mark Stoops apologizing to the fans for the loss. I thought that was great to hear. Some people have mixed feelings about his comments on Dawson, but that’s not the point of this article. Before the cameras rolled and Mark was sitting at the press stand, one of the most emotional things happened. Mark walked into the presser and immediately went over to his family and just gave his wife and kids a tap on the head. He gave them a look like, ‘I’m sorry I let you all down‘. If I had to make an assumption… I would assume that he was fighting back tears when he gave them ‘the tap’. He didn’t even say anything, because I don’t think he could. It was a moment that you really had to see to understand. So believe me… Coach Stoops knows how you feel.

Photo: Andrew Bishop, CameronMillsRadio.com, Post-Game walking off of the field.

After the post-game interviews with the players, I walked out to one of the hardest things I’ve seen at a UK Football game. A relative or close friend of Boom Williams was in tears. She wasn’t just in those ‘we lost the game tears‘. She was in those ‘I’m heart-broken tears‘. She was decked out in Boom Williams’ gear, so I assume she’s a relative, but what made it even more difficult was the fact that while she was waiting for Boom to leave the presser, another player hugged her and said, “I’m sorry we didn’t win”. That player also had tears in his eyes when he said it to her. So believe me… the players’ families and friends (fans) know how you feel.

Photo: Andrew Bishop, CameronMillsRadio.com, Pre-Game on the CatWalk.

So while we all ‘know the solution’… understand that no one wanted to lose that game last night. I could’ve snapped a quick picture of all three of these scenarios, but in fear they could be the internet’s latest meme, I realized that sometimes it’s deeper than the game. It’s personal. It’s so personal that it’s hard to even write about.

It’s obvious, Kentucky Football just isn’t where we thought it was or hoped it would be. We’ve got to keep cheering and just hope we make a bowl game soon. Until we do, we need rejoice when we win and be sad when we lose, but we simply cannot say that the players, coaches, and their families and other fans don’t feel the same way that we do.

The game is over… there’s nothing we can do about it now, so let’s smile at this beautiful picture of a young BBN member enjoying the game and keep our heads up as we go into Gainesville.

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5 Comments

You gave 3 examples claiming the players and coaches “know how you feel” . That’s incorrect because the players are experiencing it for 4 to 5 years. Stoops is experiencing it for his 4th year. As a long suffering fan I’ve put up with this garbage over 40 years. The players and coaches have NO CLUE how that feels.
After 40 plus years of constant heartbreak and disappointment I reached my breaking point saturday night…..no longer will I be wasting my Saturdays on a football program that refuses to care. I cancelled my TV package today. ….no more ESPN, no more SEC network. I deleted all of my Internet message board accounts for UK fan sites. I unfollowed all UK football themed facebook pages and stopped following all UK related personalities on Twitter.

I divorced UK football today… while still feeling a big void in my world (40 years of devotion is significant ) I believe in time I will not miss it. I’ll use this new found time to explore the Commonwealth on these crisp autumn days. Attend festivals, see towns I’ve not seen. To enjoy my Saturdays …..something I’ve rarely done in the last 40 + years of football seasons.

I feel exactly like Tim. I know how he feels. I am a UK Alum and I have supported this team though thick and thin for over 40 years. The only times that the UK Football Team has met expected results were when we got caught cheating and the final years of Rich Brooks. Every year we get all of the pre-season hype, the recruiting hype, and hope for a decent team. One thing that I can say with confidence is that football games are won and lost in the trenches. Stools has had 3 full recruiting cycles to recruit now, and I’m not counting the year he was hired because the first year you recruit is always very difficult. Brooks and Joker left the team with a bare cupboard of recruits, so it’s only fair that you give Stoops four years to build a team. We’ve done that now, and the only improved area that I see is the offensive skill positions and maybe our defensive secondary. We’ve been told that the offensive line is a strength of the team this year, but during the second half I saw Southern Miss only bringing three lineman and getting to Barker with relative ease! They drop eight into pass coverage and get still managed to quickly get to our QB. If we truly are better on the O-Line, I think it’s time to hire a new Offensive Line Coach, because the O-LINE IS KILLING US! It’s not that they were tired because they only played about half of the snaps that the D-Line played! I’ve watched our Offensive Line for the last three years and they simply do not know how to open holes for our running backs or block for our Quarterback. I conclude that we need better coaching on the offensive line. As far as Defense… I thought the whole idea of bringing in Mark Stoops was to build a defensive unit. So far all I’ve seen is a porous Defensive Line. Any team that scouts our defense should just line up and run the ball right through our Defensive Line. There’s really no need to pass against Kentucky, because we simply cannot stop the run. I’m so sick of getting my hopes up every year; believing all of the pre-season hype, and hearing about how we’re going to get it fixed after every loss. Somehow we always manage to lose out on Defensive Linemen when it comes to recruiting, and when we do get a couple of decent tackle positions, they end up transferring out. There’s no reason that we should have such a poor Defensive Line when we have invested so much on a supposedly great Defensive Coach! Either we aren’t getting the job done on our Offensiveand Defensive Line Recruiting or we can’t coach them up! After three full recruiting cycles, a supposedly Defensive Coach with name Recognition, there’s really nothing else to say about it. Kentucky needs a new Head Football Coach. We definitely need a new Defensive Coordinator and we need a coach who actually knows how to coach an Offensive Line! At this point I don’t see our team getting any better this year. Again, Football Games are Won or Lost in the trenches. That is a proven fact that any good Coach will tell you. I realize that it’s difficult to find big, fast guys to play the defensive line positions of Tackle and End, but what excuse does Stoops really have for our O-Line and D-Line play? Personally, I feel that it’s time to cut our losses (plenty of those anyway) and go out and hire someone who has actually had experience and success as a Head Football Coach. I do not doubt that Mark Stoops wants to win as badly as I do, but the SEC is not the league that will allow us to continue to bring in coaches that don’t have successful experience as a HEAD COACH! How many other SEC Programs go out and hire Coordinators to be their Head Coach? Vandy? Again I have to emphasize that Football Games Are Won or Lost By The Talent You Have On The Offensive and Defensive Lines! Now I have said my thoughts on this matter and I’m going to find something better to entertain me on Saturdays rather than follow a team that doesn’t have the talent or the will to play winning football!

Here’s the beauty Tim and Steve, you have the freedom to go on and do whatever you want on your Saturdays. No one is requiring you to watch the game. No one requires you to spew on message boards. No one requires you to be a fan–that’s your choice. But the point of this article is to show that the players, coaches, and other fans do CARE. You may not anymore, you can choose to quit and not care anymore, that’s your choice. But for everyone else, this article is a nice refresher to show that the coach is human–sure he makes a ton of money doing his job, but salary is relative. I hope he cares, because if he doesn’t then I’m sure his life is miserable on a daily basis. The players do care, because if not, then their lives must be miserable. Do you wake up at 5 AM for morning workouts–guaranteed they do more physical work in 4 years than any of us do in 40 years? Do you sweat and get sick doing your “job”…but yet don’t get paid for it–only to come home to read comments from 50-70 years complaining about this or that? Show me a collegiate athlete that isn’t competitive or doesn’t want to win, good luck. NO ONE HATES LOSING MORE THAN THEM. I’m happy both of you have been fans for 40 years, but do you really think this is the worse this program has been in 40 years? No, it’s not. So why quit now after 1 game of this 2016 season? I bet the first half both of you were screaming “This is the Kentucky football we’ve been waiting for…Praise Stoops!”
I guess ultimately I’d have to ask what your expectations are: how “bad” do you think the Southern Miss loss was? Vegas doesn’t think so, they had the Cats a 3.5 favorite at game time. But let’s look at the rest of the SEC while we’re at it. Schools that are traditionally or formerly football dominant schools didn’t have the best weekends or most confident weekends either:

Missouri gets beat up by West Virginia
Vandy and South Carolina played in an SEC snoozefest
Mississippi State loses to South Alabama–the same MSU team that was Top 2 within the past 3 years
Arkansas holds on against Louisiana Tech by 1
Tennessee gets lucky against Appalachian State (a game I was at, and saw that #9 UT is not as good as advertised, and App State is even better)

How do you think the fanbases of those universities feel? And get this: they suck at basketball. At least we have that, because, of course, we are a basketball school. It’s the truth, and history proves that it’s difficult to be dominant and both. Would I love a football national championship, absolutely I would. But my expectations are not there because I’m realist. Do I think we should at least make a bowl, yes that would be a good expectation–those years with Brooks were fun. But for me, watching the Cats on Saturdays to have the chance for a 2007 upset over LSU (I was at that game) or to see Randall Cobb singlehandedly come back and beat South Carolina are worth it–even if we lose some we should’ve won in the meantime. In the end, your choice to stop watching and completely cancel ESPN is just that–your choice. But that’s the beauty of it, it’s my choice to continue supporting and watching these young men sweat and bleed for a game they love, for a game the coaches love, and for a game that their friends, family, and I love. There’s no arguing with that.